Dawn of Blood: Seeker of the Golden Isle
Overview Taking over the save game of a consenting save file, the player assumes control of their son or daughter. The father or mother (previous player) was assassinated by an unknown organization, and the player must take on the adventure and move forward towards the mystic and unknown Golden Isle in another text-adventure RPG game with even greater resolution pixel-art to supplement the settings. Pre-Production: After the disappointing launch of Dawn of Blood. Two months into the pre-production of Dawn of Blood II seemed to prove that they will need more money than the profits of Dawn of Blood allowed. They came up with the plan of creating a couple expansion packs that will increase their profits, while increasing the appeal of Dawn of Blood and the upcoming sequel. In July of 1984, Dawn of Blood: Seeker of the Golden Isle began pre-production while Dawn of Blood II was in the background and slow-cooking. Pre-Production and half of Production was also split in half to create a new engine for Dawn of Blood II which halted some features and design choices from being as outstanding as they could have been. Production From October of 1984 to the release date of January 22nd of 1985 the game was being developed under a huge crunch due to Dawn of Blood: New World, another expansion pack, started to become designed in the middle of the production of Dawn of Blood: Seeker of the Golden Isle. Seeker of the Golden Isle took $16k to be created, as a large expansion effort in the offices took place at the same time to self-market. Half the time spent on Production to be used to making the next Copper Engine for Dawn of Blood II meant that Seeker of the Golden Isle would be a much lesser game and expansion to Dawn of Blood. Story Starting from when the child of the player reaches 18, the player is approached by a man wearing a golden silk robe stabbing the previous player to death in front of their child. The child, now the player, retaliates. The player follows the assassin closely, and even follows them to a nearby boat going to an unknown land mass. Not known to maps, at least. The story does not work in missions or objectives like most other Dawn of Blood games, but rather one objective: Find out who killed your mother/father, and get revenge. The player must guide their own path to finding out their parent's killer(s). In the middle of the story, the player figures out that the ones who killed their father/mother was the Silent Sunrise. A religious group believing the plague the player's parent either cured or was in the middle of curing in the main story of Dawn of Blood. The rest of the main story is slowly eliminating all of the Silent Sunrise's outposts, forts, and leaders inside the Golden Isle. The player also is able to explore an entirely new continent full of all sorts of NPCs that the player can again marry, and produce children. Along with properties that need purchasing. Note-Worthy Features Aging: The player starts at 18 years old, or whatever age the player's child was in Dawn of Blood. Every time they level-up (And the cap for gaining a level always stays the same), they age a single year. And for every year they age, they gain 0.1 Wisdom. For every 20 years they age, they lose 0.2 Strength. For every 30 years they age, they lose 1.2 Dexterity. However, the player's choices in their life (amount they drink, inflicted with the plague, etc.) can cap their maximum years of life. But if the player lead a completely healthy life, they can only live to be 120 years old before keening over and dying of old age. Romance: No special characters in the story can be romanced, but the player can romance any NPC they see fit in the expansion pack. But restricted to monogamous relationships. Legacy: The player can have a single child with their significant other. Their child is just as fleshed out as the player's own life. Property Ownership: The player is able to purchase property, manage property, and upgrade it. Selling it, or living inside of it. And upgrading it to maximum home life accomplishment and luxury. Reception and Release Marketing began shortly after production started in October 1984. And taking note of the failure of outsourcing marketing to other companies, they marketed themselves. Even expanding their own offices to accommodate three new rooms that would house 28 marketeers and a conference room. Many people knew about Dawn of Blood by this time. And seeing as Seeker of the Golden Isle required a Dawn of Blood save file, Dawn of Blood also increased in sales, but just the income from the expansion pack in one year was $274k.